RH100 panellists meet for their second discussion panel

Feb042019

Last month, the 2018/19 RH100 panellists met to discuss cross-College courses and scholarships and bursaries. This is the second of three panel discussions for this year's panellists.

RH100 is a large focus group made up of 100 student panellists from across Royal Holloway. The RH100 panel help to ensure that a range of views are considered in relation to developments at the College and on campus. RH100 helps to ensure that a range of views are considered in relation to developments around campus and provide insights that help us to test ideas, develop our thinking and inform how we shape the College for the future.

Cross-College courses

The first panel discussion on Cross-College courses was facilitated by Tom Wainwright, Associate Dean (Education) Management, Economics and Law. The panellists were asked to provide feedback on a new College initiative as part of the Integrated Academic Strategy, where a cross-College portfolio of modules will be designed, and delivered by an interdisciplinary module team.

The panel discussion sought to test the concept, particularly five key principles that the courses will be designed around, to see if they resonated with students and to give them an opportunity to shape the portfolio remit. Students also provided feedback and suggestions for the name of the initiative, how they would like to access information on the modules, to ensure that they address the interests and needs of our students.

Dr Wainwright said that the panel went very well: ‘The students were really positive about the idea and appreciated the opportunity to refine the names and principles, particularly around suggesting potential course themes. It was a great way to begin the co-creation of course development.’

The feedback gathered at this discussion will now be used directly in the development of the portfolio name and to refine the core principles. The end result will be an innovative and exciting range of modules, where the student voice is central to their ongoing development.

Scholarships

The second panel discussion looked at scholarships. The panellists were asked to share their opinions on scholarships at the College, including what form of scholarship they would find most appealing and why. They discussed how we could make scholarships more attractive at Royal Holloway and which scholarships would best benefit future students.

Lisa Hutchinson, Marketing Manager, Marketing and Communications and Amelia Tomany, Planning & Performance Analyst, Strategic Planning and Change, who facilitated the session said: ‘It is vital we understand what is important for students so it can help us form strategic thinking around our scholarship portfolio. It was great to see the scholarship debate come to life through a monopoly game and see the students engage and voice their opinion on the type of things they would be looking for out of a scholarship.’

The information collected at this panel will now be fed into Scholarships groups at the College and will help inform future decisions about improving our scholarships and how we can best attract, support, and reward students with our offering.

Professor Judith Hawley, Department of English, has recently been involved in a number of events, ranging from discussing Samuel Richardson's influential novel Pamela, on BBC Radio 4, to being recorded by BBC London News.